Chapter 648 The Sound of the Beas (1/2)
Myrrin continued to push hard alongside her brothers and sisters of steel. The grim men and women of the Legion battled hard with little rest against endless waves of insects. She pulled her helmet off for a moment and sat, leaning her back against the rough tunnel wall. Without the aid of her helmet, the oppressive darkness of the second strata swept over her once more. She'd had her helmet on for so long she'd almost forgotten how dark it was, she could barely see her own hand in front of her face.
”Myrrin, got any s.p.a.ce on that wall for a weary mage?” came the tired voice of Donnelan.
The young Legionary snorted in derision.
”A tired mage? How would it be possible to see such a thing? Standing at the back and waving your hands around can't be that tiring can it?”
”Leave off,” came the grumbled reply as Donnelan leaned back into the wall and slid down to a seated position. ”Do you have any idea how hard it is to contest the minds of these stupid ants? There's no end to them.”
She felt her curiosity piqued.
”I can't really. What's it like?”
Her friend shuddered.
”I imagine it's similar to what it feels like on the front. You push forward and immediately get jumped by a dozen opponents that swarm over you in seconds. After that it's just a desperate wrestle until they give up or someone else comes along and saves you.”
She nodded.
”Sounds about right,” she said quietly.
She fell silent for a moment before she barked out a humourless laugh.
”What's so funny?” Donnelan asked.
She smiled in the dark.
”You remember during the wave, under Liria, when we fought for days on end against the monsters? We swore we'd never see anything that bad ever again.”
He couldn't help but chuckle at how naïve they'd been.
”I suppose this is kind of similar. Endless waves of monsters to fight. Days without sleep. The commander pus.h.i.+ng us forward like a slave driver.”
”It's not the same,” Myrrin refuted, ”not the same at all.”
”How do you figure?”
”During the wave we fought so many monsters, but they were mindless, in a frenzy. The moment they saw us, they charged forward and didn't stop until they were cut to bits. These ants… ”
She trailed away and Donnelan sighed.
”Are too cunning,” he finished the thought for her and she nodded.
The traps, the secret tunnels, the ambush attempts, the constant probing on the flanks, sneak attacks trying to cut off their supplies, attempted tunnel collapses, mental a.s.saults, barrages of spells, reinforced stone walls bristling with spikes. It was brutal, draining and constant. At any moment there could be four or five tunneling attempts going on in different locations throughout the area of Dungeon they'd captured. Not a single one had ever succeeded, but the ants didn't stop trying. At first Myrrin had thought they were just being stupid, but she'd seen how draining it had been for the mages and auxiliaries to haul their detecting equipment around, setting it up all over again every time the front moved. They even had to staff the thing in rotating s.h.i.+fts, not for a single moment allowing the array to be unattended.
If their vigilance ever slipped, even for a period of minutes, the ants would be behind them, filling the tunnels in an instant and crawling over every wall and ceiling as they sought to inflict any damage they could.
”You're right,” Donnelan said, ”this is so much worse. I'd much rather throw fireb.a.l.l.s until I pa.s.sed out than engage in these mental battles. They just feel so alien.”